Travel planning systems, such as flight planning systems, may be used to search for itineraries that meet a set of criteria submitted, for example, by a potential traveler. The systems produce itineraries and prices by selecting suitable trips or flights from a database of travel carriers, geographic scheduling, and pricing information.
Travel planning systems may be computer programs that automate part of the process of identifying the itineraries. For example, computer travel systems may select the itineraries to ensure that the connections between any two segments meet a minimum connection time (MCT) required by a user to move from an arrival gate of the first segment to a departure gate of the second segment.
Travel segments may be delayed or cancelled with little or no notice. The delays may cause a traveler to miss a connecting flight, requiring the traveler to be re-routed on a different flight. The process of re-routing a traveler is referred to as travel schedule repair. The delays may also delay the arrival of the traveler at his ultimate destination.